Do we need a financial advisor or mortgage broker?

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

First things first - DH and I are complete novices at this sort of thing, no one in our families have ever bought property or anything so are clueless.

Secondly, this is Mumsnet there's bound to be someone judging or rolling their eyes at our ignorance about it all but meh, you don't learn if you don't ask! I'm also aware we're very fortunate and this is a total first world issue.

A brief summery, we're a family of 6, we're currently in a tiny 3 bed HA property.
One of our children is disabled so needs a medical room and we need a fourth bedroom, DH and I are currently sleeping in the living room.
Our council will give us a grant to extend the house but we don't want to use 60k of the councils budget when we have a good income.
Currently however our child is spending so much time in hospital as we can't provide a space at home for treatments. This sees our family spilt up for large parts of the month and means for that time I don't get paid as I'm self employed.

Over the past year our joint income has become 80k so we want to look into buying.

We'll need a 4 bed with an extra room or a 3 with 2 extra spaces, where we are, this is around £350k minimum, moving out the area isn't an option.

We have no savings currently (6 months of hospital stays last year wiped that out!) were hoping this year will be more stable but it's entirely unpredictable.

This year and the next we've dedicated not to saving but to wiping out our debts which are currently 16k bank loan.

So that's it, we need to know how best to get on the property ladder, so we see a broker to get an idea of what sort of deposit and mortgage we'd be able to get or a financial advisor to help us make the best savings and some sort of plan?

My personal choice in your circumstances would be to stay put accept the councils offer of £60k for an extension.

Once you've had children/are paying rent/making car payments, it almost impossible to get accepted for a mortgage unless you're really wealthy.

On that basis, i'd stay there and start channelling extra cash into pensions/university funds instead.

You don't need either. You will need a minimum of 5% deposit, preferably 10%, plus solicitors costs and moving fees. For income proof, you will need at least two full years accounts for your self employment and if you are a company director you will also need wage slips.
There are various online calculators that will give you an idea of how much you can borrow, and will take into consideration income as well as outgoings and financial dependants.
While it is great that you are looking to do this, in your current situation, you are going to find it very difficult. That combined salary may be very good, but as a family of six with debts, it isn't really that great. Concentrate on getting rid of that loan, rein in the spending, and get a good savings account (money saving expert can point you in the right direction and you could even consider a help to buy ISA).

how old are you both? Think you have to be under 40 for help to buy ISA.

Thanks for the advice.

We're both early 30's.

We thought help to buy ISAs were only for houses under 200k which wouldn't get us anything here.

Can I say first of all, you’re very fortunate to get a housing association property earning that sort of money! Is this down to your disabled child?
Also in my experience help to buy is not price limited, you could do part-by-part-rent or the help to buy loan, but would have to
move into a brand new property.
Or could you not take the grant and make the house you’re in bigger and then aquire to buy the house you’re in? buying from housing association requires no deposit and the bonus of not having to move! 😊

A mortgage adviser would far rather have a no obligation chat with you now to discuss what you need to do to get on the property ladder rather than you coming to them in 2 years time with 35k for a deposit on a 350k house because someone (normally Dave at the pub) has told you that is what you need and with an 80k income you can get 4 times that as a mortgage to then crush your dreams that because you have a large family, are self employed have debt repayments that you actually don't have the affordability to do it. I have to do this to someone at least once a week where ''Dave'' has done far more harm that good with inaccurate advice. (I am a financial adviser)

Sorry that was a bit of a rant.

Can you use right to buy? Otherwise yes I would suggest a mortgage broker as they can access less mainstream products but be aware that you pay for that - on your current income you could clear you debts and save this year and look to buy in 12 months.

We have this property because originally I was a single parent of 2 so was housed in a 2 bed, then I met my now DH, was told I was infertile but DS3 came along 🙄 we swapped to this current house (no RTB on it) and then a contraception failure meant DD1 came along (we've both been refused sterilisation but that's a different thread all together, we're saving to go private for DH's vasectomy)
Anyway, despite all that, we're here because DS's health has deteriorated so much now that we can reasonably go into private rent, a, because it's not secure and b, no landlord would let us adapt their property for DS's needs.

Thanks for all the advice, it looks very much like buying won't happen for us anytime soon. We'll have to re think and hope this extension can be done quick enough to help.
It's costing us 2k every time DS is in hospital at the moment which is about 6 times a year, we're in catch 22 because of we had and suitable sized house we wouldn't need the hospital admissions so much and if we didn't need them so much we'd financially be a lot better off so could afford a deposit. 🤦🏻‍♀️